Little Fireface Project

The Little Fireface Project (LFP), headed by Professor Anna Nekaris, studies the ecology of the Javan slow loris, and contributes wherever possible to the conservation and ecology of loris species throughout their range. The project’s scope of research is widespread encompassing behavioural ecology, museum studies, genetics, acoustics, taxonomy, conservation education and chemical ecology. The LFP team also conducts evaluated outreach and education programmes for local communities to get them to join the conservation movement. Our mission is to obtain vital data about all loris species to contribute to their conservation in the wild and in captivity, including aiding rescue centres in reintroductions and aiding in the welfare of slow loris pets in countries where it is still legal to keep them. We intensively use, monitor and evaluate social media to inform the public world-wide about the plight of slow lorises to mitigate their trade. LFP began under the remit of the Nocturnal Primate Research Group at Oxford Brookes University, UK in 1994, and became an independent project in 2011. Our work covers all lorises, including the African pottos and angwantibos, and Asia’s slender and slow lorises. We have since named seven new species, and have studied six species of loris for a year or more in the wild, contributing novel data on diet, habitat use, social organisation and population status. Our current main field project is on the Indonesian island of Java, where we have initiated the first-ever long-term study of a lorisiform primate in the wild – the Javan slow loris. At the same time, during country-wide surveys in forests and illegal markets we also study other obscure nocturnal animals, including colugos, pangolins, civets, small cats, mustelids and owls. We also have initiated a behavioural study of common palm civets in West Java.